I would like to reply to Dr. Lonnie Hanauer's letter in the March issue (Arthritis and Rheumutism, 24566, 1981) and to the response given by Dr. Frederic McDuffie and Charles Bennett representing the Arthritis Foundation. As a contributing author of one of the papers on auranofin that was presented at the June 1980 meeting of the American Rheumatism Association, I would like to state that I agree wholeheartedly with Dr. Hanauer's views on the press reports on auranofin; that is, they were premature and excessive.
The record should be set straight, however, on the responsibility for this. The news media release on our paper was initiated and dispatched by the Arthritis Foundation, not by the authors. There was only one hurried telephone call from the Arthritis Foundation before the release informing us of the report to be given to the newspapers. When we subsequently reviewed the Foundation's writeup, all possible efforts were made by us to have this changed. Smith Kline & French, the drug company producing auranofin for the study, aided in this effort since they were equally disturbed by the contents of the material submitted to the media.
Dr. McDuffie and Mr. Bennett state that an effort was made to call the authors, but that contact could not be made. It is unreasonable to think that we could not have been reached if there was a major attempt to do so. I am afraid that the major responsibility for the unfortunate publicity belongs to the Arthritis Foundation. A review of our abstract and subsequent presentation at the meeting will reveal that no excessive statements were made.